A Roundup of Prepaid Credit Cards in Canada

There person been galore changes successful the satellite of 1 of my favourite favored subjects: prepaid recognition cards.

Since past year, respective dynamic products person travel onto the scene, portion others person followed successful the paths of their less-illustrious cousins by cutting the benefits disposable to cardholders.

While immoderate of the devaluations which person occurred mightiness beryllium disheartening, the slew of caller prepaid outgo products bears consideration. Indeed, there’s a grade of hidden worth if you’re consenting to deliberation extracurricular the container and look for it.

Commonalities of Prepaid Credit Cards

Before we get into the specifics, let’s revisit what a prepaid recognition paper is and wherefore we should attraction astir them.

First, arsenic the sanction would imply, prepaid cards are paid successful afloat successful advance. You request to load the paper earlier utilizing it, usually by linking your slope relationship oregon by utilizing Interac e-Transfer, Visa Debit transactions, oregon nonstop deposit. This makes prepaid cards a spot similar a chequing account.

However, dissimilar a chequing account, you’re not required to travel immoderate benignant of past and byzantine acceptable of regulations astir minimum balances, nor are you required to wage immoderate benignant of fees.

Even better, dissimilar accepted slope accounts, I haven’t erstwhile received a hard propulsion to my credit score to unfastened an account.

Second, prepaid cards inactive relation similar recognition cards, due to the fact that they’re inactive integrated into the Visa oregon Mastercard networks. This allows them to enactment with lightning speed.

Prepaid cards disagree from regular recognition cards due to the fact that they don’t necessitate the issuer to lend you important amounts of money. Some, similar KOHO, connection services specified arsenic funds advances, but lone nether circumstantial circumstances.

Prepaids besides admit thing galore of america don’t privation to admit: astatine immoderate constituent successful our lives, astir of america were atrocious with money. The entreaty of the prepaid paper is that you tin load immoderate quantity of wealth you privation to bounds yourself to, beryllium it $1,000 oregon $15.

To enactment the taxable of budgeting, each prepaid supplier has a millennial-oriented app to marque you consciousness groovy astir paying your landlord. In the app, you tin besides way your spending by class successful a abstracted tab, truthful that you tin chopped yourself disconnected from Starbucks erstwhile it’s eating into your rent.

The large prepaid paper issuers spell to large lengths to marque these apps faster and much user-friendly than their competitors. This is simply a spot odd, though, arsenic they’re each underwritten by the aforesaid company, People’s Trust Bank of Canada.

Lastly, similar galore caller fiscal products, fewer prepaid recognition cards are disposable successful Quebec. Zut!

EQ Bank Card: The Strongest Prepaid Newcomer

By acold the champion introduction into the prepaid recognition paper abstraction successful 2023 has been the EQ Bank Card.

Launched by the online-only EQ Bank, the eponymous prepaid paper is incredibly beardown due to the fact that of its bevvy of no-nonsense features. This paper frankly outcompetes galore different cards due to the fact that of its sheer functionality.

Cardholders of the EQ Bank Card tin expect to bask the pursuing features, earning rates, and bonuses:

• No monthly oregon yearly fees
• 2.5% APR involvement connected deposits, calculated regular until you spend
• Free withdrawals from immoderate ATM successful Canada
• 0.5% cash back on each purchase
• No overseas transaction fees

While 2.5% involvement whitethorn not beryllium thing to constitute location about, the information it comes with nary overseas transaction fees successful summation to cosmopolitan currency backmost is surely a large crushed for astir savvy Canadians to person this paper successful their wallet.

Also absorbing is that escaped ATM withdrawals enactment precise likewise to the Carl Schwab debit paper issued southbound of the border, successful that you person an instant recognition for immoderate ATM fees incurred erstwhile withdrawing currency successful Canada. If this diagnostic were to dispersed to planetary withdrawals arsenic well, this would beryllium an fantabulous changeless question companion. 

As always, this paper comes with a sleek-looking app that makes it casual to way your spending and benefits.

Overall, this card’s orangish colour strategy reminds maine of thing truthful overmuch arsenic No Frills market stores – charmingly non-fancy, but unimaginably convenient and frugal. 

Neo Money Card: Not Too Shabby

The Wise Card: A Powerful FX Solution

The Wise Card is 1 of the champion products presently connected the market. It’s a prepaid Mastercard that launched backmost successful 2021.

A recurring taxable successful the satellite of prepaid cards is that the products, including the Wise Card, are accessed chiefly via apps. Wise besides has fantabulous functionality connected its desktop site, dissimilar immoderate of the different options connected its app.

Regardless, the Wise Card’s app interface is user-friendly and fast. All applications for the paper indispensable beryllium made either done the app oregon via the desktop website.

Activate this paper and adhd it to your wallet arsenic the astir electrical greenish point you’re apt to transportation around, and you’ll besides recognize it’s alternatively powerful.

While it doesn’t connection immoderate rewards, it tin beryllium loaded successful implicit 50 overseas currencies, and it tin beryllium utilized to ligament wealth straight into overseas slope accounts for either yourself oregon your friends and family.

While determination is simply a conversion interest betwixt the assorted currencies, it’s overmuch little than the emblematic 2.5% connected different Canadian recognition products.

Overall, I deliberation the merchandise is precise strong, and heartily recommended it arsenic 1 of the champion ways for the mean user to turn their Canadian dollars into their freedom-loving American cousins.

However, I’m not without my conniptions. With Wise, it’s successful the signifier of fees, fees, and much fees.

There’s a interest for beauteous overmuch everything, from transferring wealth into the app, to transferring to different slope account, and adjacent for withdrawing from an ATM. Take a look:

While the conversion rates stay strong, the fees mean that Wise is champion enjoyed successful bulk, truthful arsenic to mitigate the outgo of transportation per dollar sent.

ATM fees were updated successful March 2023, and not for the better. The operation is present positively complex, and 1 tin lone ideate it was astir apt by design.

I support this paper successful my wallet, but I privation it stopped trying to compression astir the edges. Then again, possibly it was inevitable, fixed their rates.

No Longer a Visa: The Wealthsimple Cash Card

A merchandise I’ve been watching intimately is the Wealthsimple Cash Card.

As a prepaid product, the Cash Card is rather typical: it’s integrated into the charismatic Wealthsimple app, features beauteous black-and-gold plan connected the carnal card, and exclusively loads via slope relationship linkage (no e-Transfers.)

For immoderate crushed successful aboriginal 2023, Wealthsimple ditched Visa successful favour of transitioning to being a Mastercard. Maybe they were offered a amended portion of interchange fees, oregon conscionable preferred the caller network. Regardless, the paper has seen a large change.

Wealthsimple’s benefits are inactive beauteous bully for a no-fee recognition card: 

• 1% currency back erstwhile placed into axenic currency back, stocks, oregon crypto holdings (note that the second 2 options person taxation implications if they emergence successful value, truthful currency backmost whitethorn beryllium preferable for a wide user)
• 1.5% currency back erstwhile placed into a Wealthsimple savings relationship (not perfect fixed existent inflation)
• No overseas speech fees – a invited change!
• Send/receive Interac e-Transfers with nary fees

While it’s a spot annoying to spell done yet different sleek startup app, astatine slightest the merchandise itself is idiosyncratic friendly, and the rewards breakdown is simple.

Finally, Wealthsimple expanded its merchandise diagnostic for higher rollers by offering an expanded involvement strategy for radical who heavy usage the Wealthsimple ecosystem, with peculiarly charismatic rates of involvement for radical with ample amounts of invested assets.

Personally, I can’t spot investing $500,000+ into a prepaid recognition paper ecosystem.

Sort of Banking: The PC Financial Money Account

While it doesn’t person immoderate benignant of inferior successful the overseas speech space, the PC Financial Money Account, a Mastercard product, distinguishes itself successful the signifier of a hybrid prepaid recognition paper plus a daily banking solution.

While PC Financial doesn’t person the aforesaid footprint arsenic the Big 5 banks, it has plentifulness of ATMs disposable astatine astir Loblaws-umbrella stores and Shoppers Drug Mart locations, truthful withdrawing currency shouldn’t beryllium overmuch of an issue.

PC Financial’s telephone centres besides thin to beryllium decent, but the surcharges connected making transactions implicit the telephone corral the casual idiosyncratic to, you guessed it, the PC Financial app.

On apical of the ATM currency withdrawals, the PC Financial Money Account does galore of the modular transactions disposable to a mean chequing account, specified arsenic receiving payroll deposits, mounting up preauthorized payments, oregon paying bills and recognition cards.

You tin besides get your owe payments withdrawn from the account, though I don’t cognize if I’d personally beryllium comfy with surviving accommodation payments coming from a prepaid paper which could perchance beryllium frozen by fraudulent charges much easy than a accepted slope account.

The paper besides earns rewards successful the signifier of PC Optimum points, astatine a complaint of 10 points for each $1 spent, a 1% gain rate. Of course, these points tin lone beryllium utilized astatine retail stores owned by Loblaws, but astatine slightest it’s providing immoderate benignant of further worth to cardholders.

While this whitethorn not beryllium overmuch to constitute location about, it’s a bully payment for a merchandise that acts arsenic a surrogate chequing account. Good luck uncovering an equivalent Big 5 offering that provides currency backmost supra 0.25%.

A Solid Contender: KOHO Prepaid Visa

The adjacent paper connected our roundup is the KOHO Prepaid Visa, which provides 0.5% currency back connected each transaction. This is thing to constitute location about, but it’s unsocial successful the prepaid sphere, arsenic it indicates that the issuer is consenting to divided their interchange gross with the customer.

The paper tin beryllium loaded by Visa Debit and Interac e-Transfer, and I find its e-Transfer loads to beryllium superior. Unlike galore of the different companies connected this list, KOHO has enabled auto-deposit.

No annoying information questions and answers here: the wealth loads very quickly.

As I alluded to earlier, KOHO is besides unsocial successful offering “funds advances.” If you elite to person your payroll deposit onto your KOHO, you tin entree up to $200 of that wage successful beforehand of the funds clearing. I don’t truly recognize the inferior of this, but it is simply a feature.

On the FX side, KOHO charges “only” a 1.5% markup connected overseas transactions. That’s amended than astir cards connected the market, but inactive worse than different credit cards with nary overseas transaction fees, specified arsenic the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.

Also of enactment is KOHO Premium. For $9 a period oregon $84 a year, you tin payment from a fig of perks, including:

• Earn a flat 2% currency back connected 3 categories
• Up to 4% interest connected deposited balances
• No overseas transaction fees
• Withdraw up to $800 at a time
• Up to 5% currency backmost astatine KOHO’s spouse vendors
• Complimentary entree to free fiscal coaching from KOHO’ staff

For the fee, I’d similar to spot much and amended features, particularly arsenic 2% currency backmost connected 3 categories is already provided for escaped with the Tangerine World Mastercard. Still, this is simply a affirmative indicator that immoderate of the prepaid issuers are trying to widen their rewards portfolio.

Oh, and you tin besides bargain pre-loaded KOHO cards astatine Best Buy.

The Walk of Shame: Mogo Card

How the mighty person fallen. Mogo utilized to beryllium 1 of my favourite prepaid cards, owed to the lightning-fast Visa Debit load times (and open-mindedness astir which Visa Debit cards to accept), arsenic good arsenic generous bitcoin currency back.

Unfortunately, the Mogo Card is nary more.

Mogo was a emblematic prepaid paper that charged mean FX fees of 2.5% and required loads via e-Transfer and Visa Debit. In mid-2022, the cards began having problems with loading, and successful 2023, customers were informed that the work would beryllium shutting down wholly arsenic Mogo focused connected its retail concern business.

Load issues aside, the Mogo Card was reasonably standard: it had a sleek paper design, a neat app with monthly Equifax recognition monitoring, and the accustomed homilies to budgeting. With a large rewards structure, this would person made for a competitory prepaid product.

Alas, Mogo abolished its bitcoin currency backmost programme backmost successful 2021. As primitively conceived, this reward programme was a neat gimmick, adjacent if your 1–2% gain wasn’t really successful “owned” bitcoins, but successful cryptocurrency owned by the company, which would beryllium paid retired successful currency upon request.

There was nary mode that this gimmick was going to past the cratering of crypto prices, and it didn’t.

How tin I get to the satellite without my BTC?

After replacing the bitcoin currency backmost with a nebulous committedness of “CO2 offsetting” by planting trees successful the Amazon (or truthful the tropical euphony successful their app implied), the Mogo Card squad was mostly soundless for months astatine a time. On apical of this, nary impervious was ever fixed that immoderate trees were planted arsenic the paper slipped further and further into obscurity. 

As the net knows: pics oregon it didn’t happen. We ne'er got the pictures.

We did, however, get an abolished merchandise that is present being replaced wholesale by the far-superior EQ Bank Card mentioned astatine the precise apical of this updated list. At slightest immoderate tragedies extremity well.

Stack: How to Lose a Prepaid successful 10 Days

Last successful our prepaid roundup, but archetypal successful shame, is the Stack Prepaid Mastercard. We covered this merchandise each the mode backmost astatine its launch successful 2018, and implicit time, the Stack squad has modified its offering astatine a marginal, but not insignificant, pace.

The Stack paper provides the emblematic prepaid benefits: accelerated deposits, a sleek app, and a vertically designed paper for flexing connected each your friends. In lieu of currency backmost oregon points, it has Stack Offers, which dwell of discounts connected mundane purchases astatine circumstantial retailers.

The amounts aren’t thing to constitute location about, but it is simply a bully small bonus.

The crushed we utilized to emotion the Stack Prepaid Mastercard was simple: nary overseas transaction fees. We don’t person astir capable products similar this successful Canada.

Alas, each bully things indispensable travel to an end. On February 1, 2022, Stack introduced a 2.5% overseas speech fee, the modular connected each large Canadian recognition paper products.

If lone the devaluations had ended here. After being sold to Credit Sesame, a large lending steadfast whose concern practices suspiciously lucifer those of the Big 5 Banks that Stack was intending to “disrupt,” the full paper self-destructed connected November 1, 2022.

Remember banking fees and however Stack was expected to get escaped of them? Remember the indignation Stack levelled upon the thought of being nickel-and-dimed connected arbitrary work charges?

Well those were the nonstop monetization policies that Stack re-introduced, frankincense torpedoing its goodwill with customers and adjacent its raison d’être connected the full market. 

I ain’t speechmaking each that

These are standard-issue successful the satellite of caller fintechs, but with the added overseas transaction fees, I’ve seen nary crushed to clasp my rank with this startup.

Blast from the Past: CIBC AC Conversion Card

The Air Canada Conversion Visa Card by CIBC, of past mass-points-earning fame, is inactive around.

I’ve included this paper connected the database due to the fact that I deliberation it highlights a nonaccomplishment of these older-school prepaids versus the caller ones: this paper has nary peculiar features, speech from the quality to load successful overseas currencies.

For example, if you privation Turkish lira, you tin load the paper successful that denomination.

However, this means you’ll beryllium stuck paying the speech rates acceptable by CIBC, which volition beryllium acold little competitory than done a No FX paper oregon via a work specified arsenic Wise.

Worse yet, you’re obligated to walk successful the loaded currency! If you person nary usage for those lira, you’ll person to person back astatine extortionate rates erstwhile more. No thanks!

Take a walk connected this option, but if immoderate interns astatine CIBC oregon Air Canada are reading, this paper needs a makeover adjacent much than my grubby wardrobe. No fees connected overseas transactions beats loading successful overseas currencies immoderate day.

Where to Learn More About Prepaid Cards

If you’re funny to larn much astir the increasing satellite of prepaid recognition cards, I’d decidedly urge you travel the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization (CPPO) website.

This is simply a large spot to get quality from the industry’s main nationalist relations arm, and you tin get a bully thought astir caller products that mightiness beryllium launching soon.

I decidedly americium thankful for the convenience and flexibility of each the innovative caller features that we continually spot from prepaid cards, specified arsenic instant Visa Debit loads, nary overseas speech fees, payroll nonstop deposits, and generous ATM withdrawal limits.

Conclusion

Prepaid cards connection an absorbing look into the aboriginal of the Canadian idiosyncratic concern market. As accepted banks shrink, volition these caller products beryllium capable to unrecorded up to the hype and go a ascendant signifier of outgo solution?

It’s inactive aboriginal days for the industry, but I’m looking guardant to uncovering retired what tricks prepaid recognition cards person successful store. Clearly, the products being launched beryllium that determination is inactive much appetite successful the fiscal services manufacture to supply more.

Until then, see picking up a merchandise oregon 2 that involvement you. You tin experimentation with however to load them, marque usage of charismatic features similar Wise’s flexible overseas currency options, oregon maximize the different peculiar offers that we often spot from prepaids.

The station A Roundup of Prepaid Credit Cards successful Canada appeared archetypal connected Prince of Travel by Kirin Tsang.